Gilkar

Hello Hoggers,
I bought two Z8's as soon as they were available. Over the past 9 months or so they have performed flawlessly. I shoot a lot of high school sports action and I have been having a problem recently which I hope some user with more experience than me can help me resolve.
The problem I am having is that the camera seems to shut down for no reason. I am shoot in the continuous mode at 3 frames per second. The camera will take about ten to twenty shots and then will just shut itself off. The viewfinder goes black and I can feel the physical clunk of the shutter closing as it is supposed to do when you are changing lenses. After five or ten seconds the camera comes back on and I continue shooting. After another few minutes the whole thing happens again.
Has anyone experienced this problem? I am suspicious that it has something to do with the battery grips I am using but I have not tested that theory as yet. I bought battery grips as soon as they became available for both of my Z8's in order not to have to change batteries in the middle of the shoot. I am wondering if there is a setting I may have missed. Any advice will be appreciated.

ricardo00

I haven't had that happen but wouldn't a simple test be to try using the Z8 without the battery grip? Another possibility is overheating? I assume you don't see any overheating warning? At 3 fps it is hard to understand why. Can you reproduce this problem? Just try shooting ten to twenty frames at the fence and see if it shuts off? Also maybe try putting the "shield" setting so it doesn't close? (I know you said shutter but there is no shutter, only a shield). Maybe your shield is somehow triggered to close even though you aren't taking off the lens (ie. a loose connection). Just some quick thoughts. Good luck. Also, you bought two cameras, is this happening with both or just one?

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

What memory card( are you using, and what format(s) are you saving? Also, a half-press of the shutter release should display somewhere how much buffer space (exposures) is available. If both cameras are behaving the same way, the strong suggestion is that something is going on with your setup, or memory cards. If you can't discover the problem, call NikonUSA's customer service number.

You are going to receive suggestions to do a factory reset. IGNORE THEM. If you do it, you will never know what was wrong or how to avoid a repeat.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

I would suggest you test that theory a.s.a.p. This may enable you to confirm if the problem is relevant only to either camera or either grip.

No similar problems with my Z8.

I can not think of any camera set up (menu option) within the Z8 that is going to cause a total shutdown, only a sleep mode that you can instantly wake up. Additionally, cards and buffer are extremely unlikely to shut a camera down.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

This is good advice. Mark the battery grips & Z8s before you do this.
Do a thorough test. The first I would do is to take the suspect BG and put it on the 'good' camera. Run your tests.
At the same time, run the test on the suspect Z8 without a battery grip. See if the problem repeats.
If nothing happens in each case, put BG #2 on the suspect Z8. Run your tests.
The final result could be: faulty BG, faulty Z8 and good BG, and the least likely-faulty Z8 w/faulty BG.
Keep in mind that if the suspect BG connected to the good Z8 creates a problem-run more tests with the good BG on the good Z8 to make sure that something was not affected in the good Z8 as a result of connecting the suspect BG.
Based on your results, you will know what to tell Nikon and send the right equipment back-ASAP. You have a year warranty. Don't miss it. Good luck and keep us in the loop please.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

This is good advice. Mark the battery grips & Z8s before you do this.
Do a thorough test. The first I would do is to take the suspect BG and put it on the 'good' camera. Run your tests.
At the same time, run the test on the suspect Z8 without a battery grip. See if the problem repeats.
If nothing happens in each case, put BG #2 on the suspect Z8. Run your tests.
The final result could be: faulty BG, faulty Z8 and good BG, and the least likely-faulty Z8 w/faulty BG.
Keep in mind that if the suspect BG connected to the good Z8 creates a problem-run more tests with the good BG on the good Z8 to make sure that something was not affected in the good Z8 as a result of connecting the suspect BG.
Based on your results, you will know what to tell Nikon and send the right equipment back-ASAP. You have a year warranty. Don't miss it. Good luck and keep us in the loop please.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

Have you asked Nikon technical support for assistance? They might have more experiece with this than any of us!

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I think some diagnostic work needs to be done before you call Nikon. Nikon will tell him to send in both the Z8 and grip. Might be the end result, but maybe not.

photoman43

My reaction is the same as Larry's. It is likely your memory card or cards if you have cards in both slots. Continuous shooting requires a fast card--one with a fast Write speed, for writing images to the card. And if you have two cards in the Z8 and are using both at the same time, the write speed usually defaults to the slowest card's write speed.

More info at these links:

https://havecamerawilltravel.com/nikon-z8-memory-card/

https://photographylife.com/fastest-nikon-memory-cards

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I believe that the OP said that these are 3rd party grips. If so, Nikon will have no interest in them. And the grips may be the problem. I have had non-Nikon grips render two different cameras completely unusable in the past.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Did not notice. Changes a lot.

ricardo00

Any update for fellow Nikon Z8 users? If the battery grips, would be useful to know which ones you have.

Gilkar

Thank you all for your insightful replies. Many of you have asked for an update so here is what I have done so far.
First I explored all of the menu options to see if I had enabled, (or disabled), something that affects the shield that protects the sensor when changing a lens. Could not find anything wrong there. Since I am using third party battery grips and I did not have the problem before using them I was pretty sure that was where the problem was. I removed the grip from the camera and went to using the camera without the grip. The problem went away so I am assuming that was the cause. I have used third party camera grips on all of my Nikon cameras and never had a problem until now. They worked flawlessly on my Z6's but I sold those cameras with the grips included. When third party grips became available for the Z8's I bought them. The do operate properly when attached to the Z8's and they do not seem to affect any other camera function other than the one I asked about in this thread. I am currently contacting the manufacturer to see if they have received any other complaints about this situation. Perhaps there may be a firmware update or something of that nature. (Firmware for the grip, not the camera). The camera is usable with the grip attached if you are willing to put up with it shuttting down every so often. For those of you who may be considering buying a battery grip for your camera the manufacturer is MCOPLUS and it does come with a one year warranty.

ricardo00

Thanks for the update! Whether deliberate or not, the new Nikon cameras appear to be less friendly to third party attachments.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

Thank you for the update.

Out of curiosity I looked up the MCOPLUS Grip Model for the Z8, (not certain it is the one you have) and quite surprised to see this comment within the specs on the AliExpress website;

"Note: This product cannot be used to record video, short circuit will occur. It can only be used for taking pictures".

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006000297207.html